Never a game

Arson, a killing, sex slavery. This is the reality of Melbourne's sex industry.

By Maris Beck

October 11, 2011 — 12.00am

AS SMOKE enveloped the brothel across the road from his Tope Street shop on August 13 last year, a South Melbourne fruiterer who counted many of the women working there among his customers frantically dialled 000. In doing so he set in train an investigation that escalated to a magnitude neither he nor the firefighters who responded to his call could ever have anticipated.

Brigade commander Wayne Garrard, one of the first on the scene, described the fire at the Top on Tope as dramatic - flames surged through the roof, smoke engulfed the city's inner south - but otherwise unremarkable. As no one was injured, it seemed tragedy had been averted.

There was an abundance of bedding to fuel the blaze - thought to have been started by a fan heater on the top floor - and it ignited quickly. But as arson detectives worked on the site, a different picture started to emerge. What they discovered would shed light on the brutal dealings in Melbourne's brothel scene, exposing an intricate network of vendettas, alliances and rivalries linked to a turf war between alleged crime syndicates in the city's lucrative sex trade.

A year later, it is clear that the fire's real significance lies in what the investigations reveal about the state's regulatory agencies and the lack of oversight that enables brothels to renew their government licences each year - despite the accumulation of police intelligence on Victoria's licensed brothel industry, sex slavery raids, suspected firebombings, a killing and widespread standover tactics.

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Brutal dealings ... Fire crews put out the Top on Tope brothel fire.

Someone is making a lot of money - and it is not the women selling the sex.

In this world, friendship and enmity are often entwined, and relationships turn sour over sex and money. So it seems the friction that sparked the South Melbourne fire may have begun years ago among enemies who once were friends.

Top on Tope, known for its beautiful Korean women, was only one of many brothels in South Melbourne, which contains one of the busiest and most profitable brothel strips in the country - an area where competition for custom has always been fierce.

One of the managers at Top on Tope was Mae Ja Kim, also known as ''Mimi''.

Detective Leading Senior Constable Glen Hatton, of the arson squad, says investigators have now ruled out electrical faults and say the blaze was not an accident. Nor was it likely to be an insurance scam - the costs of a recently added extension meant owners had lost money because of the fire.

But the owners were not the only ones who lost out when Top on Tope - one of Melbourne's busiest brothels - was boarded up and closed.

Police believe Kim was well connected in the area, with an interest in the brothel next door, 39 Tope Street, also known as Oriental Dolls, and stakes in a string of other brothels around Melbourne, to which she "introduces" women but does not appear on the books.

Of all the city brothels, sex industry sources say Top on Tope, with its prime location near the casino, and its beautiful women, was on the top tier. If anyone wanted to hurt Kim, says Hatton, they would have done it by burning the place down. The question is, who would want to and why?

I felt like I was a corpse walking into sex work, that I was going down the hall without a soul.

A witness told police a man in a puffy ski jacket and a cap was seen nearby at the time of the blaze. Now, a joint investigation between The Age and Four Corners has unearthed another crucial piece of evidence - grainy closed-circuit television footage that shows a man in a cap and light-coloured jacket walking down the hallway of Top on Tope shortly before the fire.

He walks out of frame and hurries back a while later, as the flames flare behind him.

Arson detectives are investigating the involvement of De Jun ''Kevin'' Zheng.

Zheng's journey, through numerous legal and illegal brothels in South Australia, Queensland and Victoria, also implicates Victorian regulators, who have failed to stop his involvement in the state's licensed premises, despite more than five years of documented criminal activities.

Zheng, also known as Fatty or Fat Boy, has been linked to illegal brothels interstate and was charged with keeping a woman as a slave in his Adelaide brothel. The case didn't proceed, but Zheng has bragged to an associate that he intimidated the prosecution witness. He is again under investigation for sex slavery and has been questioned by federal police.

In February 2009 he also bashed to death 27-year-old Abraham Papo outside the South Melbourne Top on Tope brothel after Papo tried to help his girlfriend, a Korean prostitute and alleged sex slave. Zheng has claimed self-defence and has never been charged.

A federal police witness told Melbourne Magistrates Court in August that Zheng forced her into prostitution at two licensed Melbourne brothels. One of the brothels she named was Madam Leona's, which was then managed by Lin Gao, also known as Lisa. (That address is now licensed to a different sex work provider and the licensee of Madam Leona's has moved location.)

In a sworn statement, the witness described mould growing on the walls at Madam Leona's, which was also infested with mice.The first time she was there, she said: "I felt like I was a corpse walking into sex work, that I was going down the hall without a soul." She said wanted to vomit so many times, she started keeping tissues next to the bed when she was with clients.

The witness said she lived in an apartment with other women, and that Zheng prevented her from leaving it. She described him as "tall and strong with a shaved head" and "looked like a very rough, angry, unfriendly kind of person. He usually spoke to me with an angry face, which made me feel scared."

She said Zheng sometimes watched her while she was in the shower and on one occasion she woke to find him groping her. She described another woman in the brothel crying after being submitted to rough anal sex. The witness said the woman did not receive medical attention and told her that "this job is not for humans".

The witness was interviewed after Madam Leona's was visited by federal police and immigration officers in September 2009. She told police that Gao had taken her to another licensed brothel, Regarding House, in Heidelberg, after she was questioned.

Yet despite the raids and despite her witness statement made in November 2010, which became public in court in August, both Regarding House and Madam Leona's remain open for business.

And in May 2010, less than six months after Madam Leona's was visited by authorities, the government-registered manager, Lin Gao, was granted a full licence to run the Candy Club brothel in Richmond.

Regarding House is also one of many sites police believe are connected with an illegal-brothel syndicate allegedly operating across the northern suburbs.

Six people have been charged over alleged bribery and illegal prostitution following raids across the northern suburbs in November last year, including a council worker who pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in August and alleged brothel kingpin Xue Di ''Jenny'' Yan, who formerly owned the property that hosts Regarding House in partnership with the current licensee.

The Age's investigations have revealed that a string of licensed brothels that have repeatedly drawn attention from police have yet to face any consequences from regulators, including the lead regulator, Consumer Affairs Victoria.

In November 2008, federal police removed two Korean women from Oriental Dolls following allegations of sexual slavery, allegations that were denied by the licensee when he was contacted by The Age. After the police raids, the brothel stayed open. The police case did not proceed, but the women were accepted into the federal government's support program for victims of trafficking.

The repeated raids - along with the 51 trafficking victims rescued in Victoria since 2003, most of them from licensed brothels - have sparked little action from state regulators, although regulators accompany police on many operations involving brothels.

A spokeswoman for Consumer Affairs Victoria says serious criminal offences such as under-age sex work, sexual servitude, drug-related offences or immigration offences are referred to state and federal law enforcement bodies."In circumstances where Consumer Affairs Victoria obtains solid, court-admissible evidence of brothel licensees or approved managers participating in serious or organised criminal activities, CAV may apply to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for an inquiry to determine if there are grounds for taking action against licensees.''

The spokeswoman says Consumer Affairs acted on all received intelligence but would not jeopardise ongoing law enforcement investigations. "A number of the premises in question are the subject of ongoing inquiries and it would be inappropriate for Consumer Affairs Victoria to make any comment that could jeopardise these inquires."

Police superintendent Pauline Kostiuk, who heads a new intelligence-sharing committee between relevant agencies about illegal brothels, says law enforcement has been hampered because little information was shared between agencies.

''There [has been] no provision for that to happen. I think they would benefit from a closer relationship and data-sharing."

Detective Sergeant Murray Aldred, one of Victoria's most experienced police officers involved in investigating the sex industry, recalls watching intelligence files on brothels shredded when the vice squad was disbanded in 1999.

When he took over the crime desk in 2006, he tried to rebuild some of those files, but was working mostly by himself. He says the state government's intelligence-sharing taskforce would improve the situation only if it was given enough resources.

One brothel owner told The Age he voluntarily photocopied sex workers' passports and sent them to the Immigration Department. He believes this is uncommon but should be mandatory, as it would help authorities detect illegal immigration and investigate possible cases of sex trafficking.

The Coalition criticised the current regulatory system when it was in opposition, and after taking office re-committed to putting police back in charge of brothel regulation.

Before last year's state election, the opposition released its plan for Consumer Affairs' role in regulating the sex industry: "The legalisation of prostitution in Victoria was intended to drive out criminal elements associated with the industry.

"Clearly, this has not occurred. Street prostitution continues openly, while unlicensed brothels and escort agencies advertise in newspapers, seemingly without fear of prosecution. Sex slavery and other human rights violations have occurred in Victoria."

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A government spokeswoman says laws will be introduced shortly to make Victoria Police the lead agency in enforcing sex industry laws affecting illegal brothels. But for now, the licensees keep ticking over, in one name or another, and the discreet doorways stay open as regulators fail to act. One exception is the charred entrance to Top on Tope. Police investigations into identifying who burnt it down are continuing.